In June 2015, the parents of Rachel Dolezal divulged the truth about their blonde-haired, blue-eyed daughter who had been pretending to be a woman of black ethnicity for years.
You may remember how she built her entire life around her lie. She served as president of the Spokane chapter of the NAACP, taught African studies at Eastern Washington University, and attended historically black Howard University on scholarship.
Dolezal, who legally changed her name to Nkechi Diallo in 2016 and is still posing as a black woman, has been involved in an investigation for over a year that has now resulted in felony theft charges for welfare fraud. Although Dolezal had been reporting income of less than $500 per month, her subpoenaed self-employment records revealed almost $84,000 deposited into her bank account between August 2015 and September 2017. Investigators believe the income was derived from book sales, speaking engagements, and the sale of gift items.
She was officially charged with illegally receiving $8,747 in food assistance and $100 in child care assistance. Pretending to be black wasn’t enough. She’s also pretending to be poor.
She told Savannah Guthrie in an NBC News exclusive in June 2015 she had never lied about her race because she had never been asked whether or not she was human. If that sentence was singled out, she might have a point. After all, there is but one race – the human race. But that’s not what she meant. She went on to say, “Race as a construct, again, is a fluid understanding.”
Then about a year ago in another NBC interview promoting her book, she explained that she wants to encourage people to be exactly who they are. “The essential essence of who I am is best defined in culture and race terms as black. We don’t have a vocabulary to express racial fluidity, so, but I do like the term ‘trans-black.’”
She argued that she is truly black because she identifies as a black woman. In other words, she feels black, therefore she is. Well apparently she also identifies with the poor; therefore, she is poor.
Abdu Murray of Ravi Zacharius’ International Ministries wrote Saving Truth, a book addressing such behavior in our post-truth culture.
“A post-truth culture is one that elevates feelings and preferences above facts and truth,” he explained. “That’s very different from a post-modern culture. A post-modern culture was a progenitor to a post-truth culture. But they are very, very different. You see, when you look at someone from a post-modern mindset, you can actually begin to reason with somebody who is post-modern. … A post-modern person says ‘There is no objective truth.’ A post-truth person says ‘There are objective truths, and I don’t care.’”
Not surprisingly, Oxford Dictionaries selected “post-truth” as 2016's international word of the year.
Though the left claims a diehard devotion to science, physical evidence is becoming increasingly less important in the process of forming beliefs and governing behaviors. In Dolezal’s case, her blonde hair, blue eyes, and genealogy are meaningless annoyances. And I’m sure if she could have it her way, banking transactions would be considered mere phantoms of reality as well.
Transgender, trans-black, trans-poor – where does it end? When does objective reality disappear altogether?
It is difficult to grasp how such a large segment of our culture can be falling into such blindness. In years past, this type of behavior would only have been displayed in comedy or maybe an episode of The Twilight Zone.
Though we may be tempted to laugh, Dolezal’s behavior is not funny. It’s sad. And because such thought processes make so little sense, it can be tremendously frustrating. But we’ve been given a heads-up through the Apostle Paul in Romans chapter one. The passage is becoming increasingly applicable to our day. We are living in a time of God’s wrath when He is giving over the rebellious ones who suppress the truth and are given over to their own selfish desires. Although the outward evidence of God and His creation are clearly seen, leaving us all without excuse, they refuse to acknowledge, praise and thank Him. Therefore, their thinking has become futile and their foolish hearts are darkened. Although they claim to be wise, they are fools (vs 18-21 paraphrased).
Are such post-truth individuals hopelessly lost souls? Yes, they are. Apart from Christ, they are. But I believe they are reachable. Perhaps, Christ’s words to the Apostle Paul on the road to Damascus also apply to us, “I am sending you, to open their eyes so that they may turn from darkness to light and from the dominion of Satan to God, that they may receive forgiveness of sins and an inheritance among those who have been sanctified by faith in Me.”
Dolezal’s behavior is even a little edgy for many who give transgenderism a pass. The concept, however, is the same. The physical evidences are minimized while feelings rule.
In a post-truth society, Christians are becoming increasingly peculiar. That’s to be expected. Own it. Don’t stop praying. Don’t stop loving. And don’t stop speaking the truth.
